About Cat with Hyperthyroidism

 A a few years ago I rescued a white tabby cat that was as normal and healthy as she could be but when she turned 9 years old her health changed drastically and her illness seemed to come onto her quickly.

Photo of Missy on the day we rescued her

At first I noticed that she was more affectionate as she was always wanting to be petted and constantly rubbed her face on mine. Another concern was that Missy had become hyper, literally she was running all over the house, playing with her toys, leaping off the sofa, rolling on the rug. We decided to stop spraying the scratching post with catnip, thinking that was why she was so active. Then I noticed that she was eating her food but losing weight.

A greasy coat is a symptom of hyperthyroidism

It was not until we noticed that Missy was losing weight and her coat which was always soft and shiny looked greasy. We thought it was time for her to go to the veterinarian.

The veterinarian gave our cat a wellness exam and then checked her blood, the blood work showed nothing wrong with her. So the veterinarian asked if they could check her thyroid levels and this is when our cat was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism.

Know that the excess thyroid hormone causes an overactive metabolism which is why Missy was running all over the house and is also why she was losing weight,

We were assured that once the medicine kicked in that our kitty would resume to a quality life but the medicine was a treatment it was not a way to fix her condition. However, we would have to change Missy’s diet. We feed our cats Hills Science Diet kibble and canned food for cats age 7+. Missy prefers kibble to canned food. However, pate canned food is better for hyperthyroidism cats because dry food is too high in carbohydrates. We needed to stick with a high quality canned pate food that was primarily meat and low in plant protein.

The veterinarian suggested several treatment options, the medicine is taken by mouth twice daily or the ratio iodine thereby which is one treatment to remove the abnormal thyroid tissue and will cure your cat but it is expensive, with costs running up to $1,500. Then they said we could try the treatment that is applied to the cat behind their ears. This treatment would replace the oral pill form.

Presently we are managing our cat's hyperthyroidism with high-quality canned pate food that limits the dietary iodine intake which reduces the thyroid hormone. We are also treating our cat's condition with daily medication that is an anti-thyroid drug. This drug stops the production of the thyroid hormone.

Missy has been taking her medication for 21 days now and we are starting to see a slight change. She has put on weight (1 lb) and isn't as hyper. Her coat doesn't look as greasy.

We have a 30-day follow-up appointment and will know more than as to how she is doing.

Socializing Barn Cats to Live Indoors

This week I helped a friend socialize her six cats so that all could live together in her home.  The cats were barn cats but when her husband brought down the barn it left the cats with no shelter so my friend thought she would bring them indoors.

The cats were accustomed to being with each other outdoors but indoors stressed them out. All of the cats were suffering from anxiety and had behavior problems such as marking outside of the litter box, scratching the sofa, climbing the drapes and fighting with each other.

We shopped for Feliway plugin diffusers for the entire house, extra litter boxes, one for each cat, catnip spray, toys, and a large scratching post/cat condo. Also instead of the clay litter, I suggested feline pine cat litter because it was similar to what the cats used outdoors.

Know that Feliway MultiCat diffuser is a synthetic copy of the feline pheromone from the mammary gland area after a mother gives birth to bond with kittens. By mimicking the cat’s natural pheromones, Feliway creates a state of calmness and comfort to alleviate tension and conflict between cats. As a result, Feliway can be used to help reduce tension and conflict in multi-cat households.

I set up the tree for her (in the living room) so the cats could be a part of the family put the Feliway diffusers in every room of the house, and provided each cat with their own litter box.

I suggested that she leave the cats indoors for 21 days, let them get used to the Feliway product and used to living indoors.  That they all should do fine but if she wanted to let them go outdoors after that, I recommended a cattery since cats free-roaming their farm was out of the question due to coyote and dogs in her area.

So it was a busy week and hopefully, all of my friend's cats will adjust to living indoors under the same roof with the humans that love them.